Heat exchanger framing for metal boats



Dec. 4, 1951 N. c. JANNSEN HEAT EXCHANGER FRAMING FOR METAL BOATS 2SHEETS-SHEET l Filed April '7, 1947 NEWMAN C'. JANNSEN INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS Dec. 4, 195

N. C. JANNSEN HEAT EXCHANGER FRAMING FOR METAL BOATS Filed April 7, 1947FIG 4 2 SHEETSSHEET 2 INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS NEWMAN c. JANNSEN Patented Dec. 4, 1951 OFFICE ExonANGER,FRAMINGFOR MET OA S.

NewmanwG; Jannsen,..S eattle-, Wash.

Application .Aprili, 1947, Serial No. 739,982

My present invention relates to the general'alft ofjheat exchangers,and, more particularly, to a heat exchanger framing ior metal boats.

During the. period recently past, the; greatly amplified boat, buildinpro ram, incidental to the recent. war advanced the technique of weldingboats to such an extent that it is now, for thefirst.timelpra ical. o.build. t e sma lel; ap ofi n boats of m al- F rm rly. t was, 01 .1 siderd ood pr tic t w ld the im na an platin of .seagoing ships, but. thevbuilding of small. craft presented so many problems in shrinkage anddistortion of the. various welded members, that it; did not appearpractical to employ such construction in boatsof even 100 ft. in overalllength, and especially, in the smaller sizes.

Due, however, to the great strides: made. in perfecting Weldingtechnique and further; by adoption. particularly of the" tubular;framing members as, is illustrated in ..my copending, allplicationSerial No. 480,891,whichmatured. into United States .Ratent No,2,i19,.218, it is now entirely. practical to. build, the. smaller.types. or fish n c a w boatsiendsma l car iers of frei htnd. assengersand; even. t e smaller types Qi pl asu afhbq hail and. qwered;

T e. adoption o ar. fr m ame ibe s ac only has greatly simplified theshrinkage prob,- lems-and the attendant distortion of the; plate andstructural-members, but hasprovid'eda very economical and" fool-proofnranner 'oi providing a heat exchanger so that thecol d waters'in-whichthe" boat is travelling can beusedto dissipate the heat generated in thecooling water of the inter-nai combustion engines used to propel" suchboats:

In the older craft used for fishingandin small boat constructions wherewood" wasthefavorite building material, it-was customary to use what wascommonly known as a heavy duty type-of engines. These were" large massesofcast iron; which due to their bulk and: the-thick wallsof the enginecylinders; heads and otherparts re;-

quiringcooling, could accept the seaywateuas a cooling medium. However;the commercial trade has become conscious of-the savings to be made inemploying highspeed engines in such craft: and" as these place quite apremium on weight and are normally made, horse power-- for horsepower,;to weigh but afraction' of the totalwei'gl i t ofthe heav-y-dutytypesformerly-* used; it has been found most desirable toemployajneutral water' coolant so thatthe, thin walls andsmalhpassageways will not beobstructedi nor will corrosion and rustingand possible electrolytic action tend to eat out the relatively-thinwalls of those portions of the engine that require cooling It is toprovide a solution of theneeds brought about by thesev revolutionarychanges in small boat construction that'I have provided my novel framingand heat exchanger.

The principal object of my invention, there fore, is to provide, in afabricatedmetal boat. a plurality of tubular members running lengthwiseof the boat, and which take the place of and provide the strengthformerly assured by the use of a keel, stringers, bilge heels, and thelike, and to further use these same tubular'mem bers as a heatexchanger. so that a neutral fresh water may be used as a coolant forthe internal combustion engines.

A further object of my present. invention is to provide, longitudinallydisposed tubular members within the structural framework of the metalboat which are inv intimate contact with the waters, through which theboat sails and which, by this contact, make, it possible to efii'rciently cool engine coolants which are passed through the tubularmembers in a. closed circuit arrangement.

A. further object of my present invention is toprovide a plurality oflongitudinal, tubular, structural members as part of a ships framing, sodisposed that one or more of these, tubular members may be used as heatexchangers and thus provide a. degree of. cooling. for they enginecoolant that can. be adjusted. easily to. the tern;- peratures desired.and the temperatures, of the water in whichthe ship is sailing.

Further objects, advantages and capabilities will be apparent from thedescription and dis.- closure in; the drawings or may be comprehended orare inherentin the device.

In the drawings:

Fig... l: is avertical, longitudinal viewthrough a. metal ship, partlyinsection, incorporating the features offmypresent inventions Fig. 2 isatypical cross-sectional view-- through the ship of" Figi 1 Fig. 3 isatypical cross-sectional view showing in fragmentary-perspective atypical use of my longitudinal tubular frame members;

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic View showing the general arrangement of mytubularf-rame" members and the; valve means which permits selection ofsuflieient cooling area to meet operating conditions:

Referring more: particularly to thedisclosure in the drawings, thenumeral designates my main structural member. This normally is a tube ofappreciable diameter, and provides the upright portion 12 which formsthe stem or outwater of the boat, as well as a structural member, andthe horizontal member l4, which serves as a keel for the boat inaddition to tying together the various structural members.

In the illustration in Fig. 1, I have shown the outgoing cooling waterpipe 46 as connecting into the stem l2, and have shown a return pipe l8as tapping into the keel near its rearmost end, and leading from thatpoint into a reservoir 20 and thence from the reservoir through pipe 22into the intake for the cooling water of the engine. This in effectforms a closed circuit in which any form of coolant may be used for theinternal combustion motor M such as fresh water, either in its naturalstate or neutralized, or it will take the various non-freezing coolantswhich are so desirable in boats that are used under conditions wherethey may be laid up or are idle for extended periods in a climate wherelow temperatures may be expected. The reserve or supply tank 20 for thecoolant should have sufficient upward extent so that it will be the highpoint in the cooling water system, so that it may be vented toatmosphere and will at all times insure thatthe cooling circuit will beentirely filled and free from air pockets. In the illustration, I haveshown a deck fill pipe for tank 29 as at 24. This filling pipe should beof considerable diameter so that of itself it will augment the storagecapacity or reserve supply of coolant and provide an easy means ofdetermining when any appreciable amount of coolant has been dissipatedthrough loss or otherwise. It also provides, following hydrostaticprinciples, the required head on the system even though it may be ofrelatively small diameter.

In the illustration in Fig. 1, I have for the sake of clarity shown onlyone complete circuit and that of rather large diameter tubing. It isbelieved that it will be apparent that such an arrangement would besatisfactory only where the cooling needs of the engine are not greatand where the water through which the ship is pass in is quite 0001.

There are other conditions encountered, particularly off our southerncoast, where the water temperatures may be quite high and the normalairtemperatures, particularly in the tropics, may be so high that, onthe one hand, the motor will require considerably more cooling and, onthe other hand, the heat exchanging system is not capable of droppingthe temperature sufiiciently with the limited surface exposed in theshowing of Fig. 1. To overcome this condition, I have provided suitableconnections to other longitudinal tubular frame members as 26, 28, 30and 32, so that additional cooling surfaces are presented to the shipsupporting waters and the engineer in charge of the power plant may, byproper manipulation of the valve means, use as many of the tubularmembers as is required to give him the overall transfer of heat requiredto satisfy his power plant. This has been found a matter of considerableimportance as the ship that is fishing for tuna and other warm waterfish may cruise down as far as the equator in quest of the same and, atother seasons of the year, may be used in Alaska and, similarly on theeast coast, the same boat may within a years time be used in warmsouthern or the cold northern waters and it is imperative that adequateprovision be made so that the cooling needs of the motor can 4 besatisfied by the exposed framing built into the ship if a heat transfersystem following the principles of my invention is going to havepractical commercial application.

It will be clear it is believed from a study of Fig. 3 of the drawingthat the hull plating sections as 34 and 36 are butt welded to thetubular frame member as 38 which might be any of the longitudinalmembers shown in Fig. 2. As expansion and contraction occurs, eitherduring the fabrication of the ship or while the same is in use,following principles that are well known, the steel tubing which Iprefer to use and which should be generally of the character of steelboiler tubing as far as composition of metal is concerned. is capable ofconsiderable distortion in cross-section. It may be elongated if placedunder tension, or itmay be flattened if placed under compression, andmay be subjected to the two extremes many times without any detrimentaleffects to the framing. Such distortion of the tubing will cause somedecrease in the carrying capacity or the cross-sectional area of thetubing but, then again, if the distortion should interfere and reducethe heat transfer capacity of the tubing below that required by thepower plant, additional tubing can be cut into the service and correctthe fault. 1

In Fig. 4, I have illustrated, diagrammatically,

one satisfactory valve and tubing arrangement for the combined use offraming the heat exchange means and for framing a metal boat. It is tobe noted that each tube has half of its periphery exposed to the coolingwater, as shown in Fig. 3, and in addition the fact that the shellplating is butt welded to the tube greatly augments the cooling effectupon the engine coolant circulating through the tubing.

7 I find it desirable to use a plurality of valves as 40, 4|, 42 and 43,and a number of cross connection tubes as 45, 46, 41, 48 and 49,together with a transom tube frame 56 which joins the various framemembers together.

With the valve and connector arrangement noted, many differentcombinations are possible, so that the coolant being circulated by pump52 may havea short path, or the length of the flow may be increased bycutting in more frame tubes until adequate cooling is achieved. The useof frame tubing, because of the large diameter, offers little resistanceto the flow of the coolant, in contrast to the tortuous path provided inmost heat-exchanger units.

It is believed that it will be clearly apparent from the abovedescription and the disclosure in the drawings that the inventioncomprehends a novel construction of a heat exchanger framing for metalboats.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A heat exchanger framing for welded metal boats, comprising: atubular keel member, a plurality of longitudinal tubular frame membersdisposed substantially equidistant from said keel member, shell platingdisposed between said frame members and welded to diametrically oppositeportions of each frame member to expose substantially half of thesurface of each frame member as the outer skin of the boat, tubularconnectors disposed between said tubular members and interconnected withsaid tubular members, and valve means disposed in said tubular membersand connectors to provide liquid passageways of various lengths.

2. Longitudinal framing for welded metal boats, adapted to form a heatexchange for propulsion engine coolants, consisting of: a tubular keelmember, a plurality of longitudinal tubular frame members disposedsubstantially equidistant from said keel member, shell plating disposedbetween said tubular members with the longitudinal edges of said shellplating welded to substantially diametrically opposite portions of eachtubular member, whereby said keel member and said frame members arepositioned to expose substantially half of their surface as the outerskin of the boat, tubular connectors disposed between said tubular keeland frame members and interconnected with said tubular keel and saidframe members, and valves positioned in said tubular members andconnectors to control fiow of liquid in said tubular members andconnectors to provide liquid passageways of various lengths.

3. Longitudinal framing for welded metal boats, adapted to form a heatexchange for propulsion engine coolants, comprising: a tubular keel andstem member; a plurality of longitudinal tubular frame members disposedon each side of said keel member having their forward ends connected tothe stem portion of said tubular keel and stem member; tubularconnectors disposed between said tubular members and interconnected withsaid tubular members; shell plating positioned between said tubularmembers having the longitudinal edges of said shell plating butt-weldedto opposite sides of said tubular members, whereby substantially half ofthe surface of said tubular members is exposed as the outer skin of theboat; and valves positioned at various junctures of tubular members andconnectors, providing means of varying the length of tubular members andconnectors.

NEWMAN C. JANNSEN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 270,519 Vaughan Jan. 9, 1883366,662 Harthan July 19, 1887 1,114,498 Macleod Oct. 20, 1914 1,810,097Wheeler June 16, 1931 2,122,300 Smith June 28, 1938 2,258,526 WalterOct. 7, 1941 2,382,218 Fernstrum Aug. 14, 1945 2,433,745 Ditchburn Dec.30, 1947 2,466,525 Wilson Apr. 5, 1949

